Yearbook Shows Mainline Churches Slip while Pentecostal Churches Sprout
America’s mainline churches suffered a decline in membership while Pentecostal and historic African American churches grew in numbers over the past year, according to the recently released 2005 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches
America’s mainline churches suffered a decline in membership while Pentecostal and historic African American churches grew in numbers over the past year, according to the recently released National Council of Churches’ 2005 “Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches.”
The yearbook, one of only a few thorough references of all Christian churches – including Catholic, Orthodox, Pentecostal and Protestant – available on the market, gauges the general growth trends of single denominations and Christianity as a whole.
According to this year’s statistics, the Catholic Church remained the largest faith group in the U.S. with 67,259,768 members and a growth rate last year of 1.28 percent. The second largest denomination in the U.S. is still the Southern Baptist Convention with 16,439,603 members and a growth rate of 1.18 percent. The United Methodist Church is third largest with a reported membership of 8,251,175 and a growth rate of .002 percent.
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Other churches that have continued to grow in 2004 are the Assemblies of God, 2,729,562 members and a growth rate of 1.57 percent; the Episcopal Church, 2,320,221 members and a growth rate of .57 percent; and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 1,432,795 members and a growth rate of .14 percent.
According to Rev. Dr. Eileen W. Lindner who edited the yearbook for the eighth year, the growth in those denominations can be attributed to the evangelistic mindsets of those groups.
“If you look at the churches that grew the most, they intentionally reach out to bring people in,” explained Dr. Linder, who serves as the NCC Deputy General Secretary for Research and Planning.
Dr. Linder also noted that the churches are more “fitting” to “what people are looking for” in contemporary America, partly due to their urban settings.
On the flipside, the mainline denominations that once dominated the nation’s faith-market continued to lose members – some at alarming rates.
According to the yearbook, the churches that lost members are: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 4,984,925 members, down 1.05 percent; the Presbyterian Church (USA), 3,241,309 members, down 4.87 percent; The Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod), 2,488,936 members, down .95 percent); American Baptist Churches in the USA, 1,433,075 members, down 3.45 percent; and the United Church of Christ, 1,296,652 members, down 2.58 percent.
With the exception of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, the mainline churches are known to have moderate to liberal views on theological and social issues.
However, Dr. Linder explained that these churches generally did not lose members over theological issues but rather to old age.
“The make-up of these churches is much older,” said Linder to the Christian Post on Thursday. “So more than these churches losing members to other [denominations], they lost their members to eternity.”
This may also explain why the membership in Pentecostal and Charismatic churches has been rising.
“Younger people tend to shop for churches more,” said Linder. “And they are attracted to the Pentecostal churches” – which she said are sprouting in urban areas.
The 2005 Yearbook, now in its 73rd year, reports on 217 national church bodies with 150 million members in the U.S. Reports include brief church histories and contact information for church leaders. The yearbook also analyzes the financial data from 63 churches representing almost 50 million members and more than $32 billion.
While the statistics are self-reported, there are safety nets established by the NCC data stream that prevent “cooked” numbers, according to Dr. Linder.
The Yearbook is published by Abingdon Press in Nashville, Tenn., and is available for $50 at www.electronicchurch.org. Included in the cost is a subscription to the “Yearbook Online,” which features regularly updated searchable data.
The following is the list of the top 25 Denominations/Communions as listed by the Yearbook:
1. The Catholic Church - 67,259,768
2. Southern Baptist Convention - 16,439,603
3. The United Methodist Church - 8,251,175
4. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - 5,503,192
5. The Church of God in Christ - 5,449, 875
6. National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc. - 5,000,000
7. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America - 4,984,925
8. National Baptist Convention of America, Inc. - 3,500,000
9. Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) - 3,241,309
10. Assemblies of God - 2,729,562
11. African Methodist Episcopal Church - 2,500,000
12. National Missionary Baptist Convention of America - 2,500,000
13. Progressive National Baptist Convention - 2,500,000
14. The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS) - 2,488,936
15. Episcopal Church - 2,320,221
16. Churches of Christ - 1,500,000
17. Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America - 1,500,000
18. Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Inc. - 1,500,000
19. American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A. - 1,433,075
20. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church - 1,432,795
21. United Church of Christ - 1,296,652
22. Baptist Bible Fellowship International - 1,200,000
23. Christian Churches and Churches of Christ - 1,071,616
24. Jehovah's Witnesses - 1,041,030
25. The Orthodox Church in America - 1,000,000
